62 ANT IE NT METAPHYSICS. Book IL 



in the notion of matter ; for, as it has the capacity of all fonii, fo it 

 has the privation of all form. In this way Ariftotle himfelf has ex- 

 plained the nature of matter in the paffage above quoted from the firft 

 book of his Phyfics, cap. 8. verfus fnem. And Plato, in the Ti77iaus^ 

 has very much infilled upon this quality of 7;/^^/c'r as abfolutely necef- 

 fary, in order to fit it to receive all forms ; and he illuftratcs his mean- 

 ing by a comparifon : Thofe, fays he, v^rho make unguents or per- - 

 fumes, prepare the liquid fo, to which they are to give the perfume, 

 that It may have no odour of its own. And, in like manner, thofc, 

 who take off an imprefTion of any thing upon any foft matter, clear 

 that matter of every other imprefTion, making it as fmooth as 

 poffible, in order that it may better receive the figure or image intend- 

 ed. In like manner, fays he, matter^ in order to receive the fpeciefes of. 

 all things, muft have in itfelf the fpecies of nothing * 



The principles, therefore, of which all natural bodies are compofed, 

 are two, viz. matter and form ; the one of which is the ??iaterial cau/e, 

 the other ihc formal ; and both are inherent caufes, called by Arifto- 

 tle {vu3r«5^«vTx, exilling in the thing itfelf; whereas, the other two caufes, 

 viz. the efficient and the fnal^ are external^ or without the thing. 

 They are alfo called elements^ being that of which the thing is com- 

 pofed, and that into which it is ultimately refolved t J fo that all ele^ 

 ments are caufes^ but all caufes are not elements J. 



Of thefe two elements of nature, the one is perfe(5lly fimple, admit- 

 ting of no variation in itfelf; I mean matter. The other is of great va- 

 riety ; and there is a progrefTion in it worth obferving. The firft form 

 that matter alfumes is extenfwn^ by which its parts become contiguous, 



that 



* ToeaTev tvi xxi tm rx rui-ffxirun ttiH ti ovruv, xaru ttmv iccvttv, iroXXxKtg xPefiaiufcterx xxXv^ 

 fii>.Mfri hx,i<r^cn, sru^Ttiv iKTog xvTuf w^cctjxh jri(p-j)ti>xi Tuy eii'ijr. PlatOllis TimaeUS, Pag. . 

 1060. edit. Ficini. 



t Metaph.lib. 5. cap. 3. 



■\. Ibid. lib. 14- cap. 4. See alfo Mr Harris's Philof. arrangements, page 92.' 



